
Class _fe£_, 



EARLY ROADS 

¥(.6 



THE DWELLERS THEREON 



IN 



THE NORTHERN PORTION OF WORCESTER. 



A PAPKR PREPARED BY 

HENRY M. WHEELER, Esq., 
II 

FOR 

The Worcester Society of Antiquity 
From Volume XX. 



Worcester 1904. 




25 JI 1907 



EARLY ROADS IN WORCESTER, 



In the preparation of an article on the early roads and 
the dwellers thereon in the northern portion of the town 
I soon found myself in the predicament of the man, who, 
at an advanced age, undertook to compile the genealogy 
of his family; he said, "I think I have got hold of a bigger 
job than I can manage." A writer has said, "An idea 
arrives without effort: a form can only be wrought out 
by patient labor." 

When the Pilgrims came hither they found a land peopled 
by inhabitants called Indians, who , were hospitably dis- 
posed towards the strangers. Had Our fathers shown 
the Christ-like spirit which they professed to hold, as 
the actuating principle of their lives, or had the temper 
of John Robinson prevailed over that of Myles Standish, 
the early history of this land would have been far different 
from what it is. But the discussion of this question would 
be foreign to the purpose of this paper. The people found 
here have been called aborigines usually, but in the light 
of recent investigation and research that term seems to 
be of doubtful significance. It is out of place to more 
than allude to the inquiry here. 

These peoples, by whatever name designated, dwelt in 
small communities located near the sea shore or on the 
bank of some pond or lake or stream, or in some rich valley, 
from which their supplies of fish and maize could be obtained.- 
Communication between these settlements was made 
on foot by well-worn paths which came to be known as 
Indian trails. The more numerous the communities the 
greater the number of trails, and the more distinctly marked. 
The paths were about one foot in width and from one 
inch to six or more inches in depth according to the nature 



of the soil and their more or less frequent use. They were 
tortuous in their course, crossing and interlacing each other 
in all directions, yet each having its own marked destination. 
A good illustration of these trails can be seen in a large 
tract of land, the surface of which is covered with bushes, 
trees, shrubs and rocks, low and wet places, elevations and 
depressions, wherein cattle have been pastured for many 
years. The paths made by the cattle wind about at all 
angles, and there is not a straight one among them all. 
The nature of the ground affects the course. Just as the 
cattle in the pasture go round the rocks, avoid the miry 
places, wind in and out amongst the trees and bushes to 
reach water or the salt lick or the best feeding ground, 
so the Indians traversed the county by avoiding the 
highest elevations, encircling the swampy places, deflecting 
their course to find the best fording spots, and wound 
their way through the otherwise trackless forest to reach 
their destination. They went in single file. The entire 
country was covered with a network of these trails. Cer- 
tain ones became known as great war paths, some of which 
are identified to-day. They were more numerous in New 
York state and in the middle west between the Alleghany 
Mountains and the Mississippi River than in New England. 
Some of them have become historic; the most prominent 
being the Nemacolin, so named from a Delaware Indian 
warrior chieftain. This ran from the Cumberland River to 
Fort Duquesne. It was by this path that young Washing- 
ton bore the message from the Governor of Virginia to 
the French. On the same path he subsequently made the 
first and only surrender to opposing forces during his life. 
By this path the fatal expedition of Braddock trod. Later 
it became and still is one of the great thoroughfares between 
the east and the west. An interesting account of these 
old trails may be found in "Historic Highways," by Archer 
B. Hulbert. 

As the colonies in the eastern part of the state increased 



in population, the more adventurous of the people pushed 
out toward the west, seeking new homes and founding 
new settlements. Waltham, Weston, Sudbury, Concord, 
Marlborough, Lancaster, Deerfield, Worcester, Brookfield, 
Grafton, Oxford, Brimfield and Springfield sprang into 
existence one after the other. Communication between 
these places and the older ones became a necessi ty . Traveled 
ways immediately came into existence, which followed the 
trails or paths made by the Indians. All travel was either 
on foot or on horseback, baggage and stores were borne 
on pack horses; there were no wheeled vehicles. The 
paths were as primitive as the cattle trails in the pasture. 
No attempt was made to build a road. Traveling was 
dangerous at all seasons, especially so in the winter, from 
wild animals, hostile Indians, falling trees, morasses, swollen 
waters and deep snows. From these primitive ways the 
present admirable system of roads has been slowly evolved 
through years of difficulty and toil. First the trail was 
widened into the rough cart path, rilled with rocks and 
stumps and holes, that crossed the streams by fords. 
Next came the cleared way built on the top of the natural 
soil, with corduroy through the low places and rough plank 
bridges over the water courses, veritable sloughs of despond 
a part of the year. Then followed the plank road, a great 
improvement, but of short duration. This was succeeded 
by the turnpike, a scientific development of the axiomatic 
truth that the shortest distance between two given points 
is a straight line. The projectors of this system of roads 
seem to have overlooked two facts, viz.: first, that that 
truth is applicable only to plane surfaces; second, that 
the bail of a bucket is no shorter in a perpendicular position 
than in a horizontal one. The pikes ran straight over the 
highest hills, through the lowest valleys and across swamps, 
and were turned aside only by wide and deep ponds. The 
Roxbury and Worcester turnpike, or the Boston and 
Worcester, as it is commonly called, built in 180G, is a 



6 

good illustration of this kind of a road near at hand. The 
builders of it, undaunted by the long, steep hills, determined 
to cross Long Pond. Their first attempt was a failure. 
Actuated by a high resolve, however, they said, "Sink or 
swim, survive or perish" we will carry this through; though 
the first structure sank they finally crossed on a floating 
bridge. Yet our fathers were wise men ; they were willing fre- 
quently to toil up the steep and rugged mountain side to 
obtain a sight of the King in his beauty, and felt amply 
repaid for their struggle by the vision. Would it not be 
well for us, their children, occasionally to leave the miasms 
and damps of commercialism and materialism in the valley 
and toil upwards to the mountain tops, where in a pure atmos- 
phere we might behold with clear vision the sublime views 
of a better life, and the true relation of man to man and 
of man to his maker. 

Instead of the straight turnpike this aesthetic generation 
prefers the road of gentle elevation, winding with easy 
bend through the wooded valleys, along the murmuring 
brookside or the curving sweep of the ocean's shore. It 
is not easy for us, borne over smooth Macadam or Telford 
roads in carriages hung on eliptic springs rolling along 
with rubber tired wheels behind a fast moving blooded 
horse, to conceive of the means of locomotion one and two 
centuries ago. 

Roads are an index of civilization. The better the roads 
the greater the advancement in knowledge. In a highly 
civilized land one expects to find good roads. A recent 
writer has said, "Among the most searching tests of the 
state of civilization reached by any country are the character 
of its roads." Rome, in its Augustan age, constructed 
military roads which have endured to the present day. 
As a land approaches its attainment in Christian govern- 
ment its roads will become highways of peace. The roads 
of two contiguous towns often mark the high degree of 
civic pride in the one and the lack of it in the other. 



The principal and perhaps the oldest path in Massachu- 
setts was that from the Bay, so called, westward to the 
Connecticut River and beyond. It was styled the "Old 
Connecticut Path" from 1G36 till 164G, after which it 
received the name of the " Bay Path." Starting at Boston 
it followed the northern bank of the Charles River to Wal- 
tham, thence through South Framingham, Hopkinton, 
Westborough, Grafton, Sutton, Charlton, Sturbridge to 
Brimfield, where other paths joined it, one going to the 
great falls, now Palmer, another southward to Agawam, 
now Springfield. It continued to be the only path till 
L648, when a new one was opened, which left the old path 
at Weston and went through Lancaster, New Braintree, 
West Brookfleld and Warren to Brimfield. Later a third 
path went through Marlborough, Worcester and Brookfleld. 
This was called sometimes the "Connecticut Path." J. G. 
Holland, in his interesting story, entitled "The Bay Path," 
has woven into it with great beauty the tale of the path of 
true love. The Bay Path has been forced to give way to 
other and better methods of communication; the other path 
remains the same as it was when Mary Pynchon and John 
Holyoke walked together in the old "Bay Path." Some 
of these paths came to be known as "Post Roads." 

When a new settlement was started the General Court 
chose a committee to apportion the territory amongst the 
settlers, to some of whom grants were made as compensation 
for services rendered the state, to others as an inducement 
to join the community; the committee received pay for 
its services by grants. All the land may not have been 
divided in the first allotment and subsequent divisions were 
made as new settlers came forward. Some of those in the 
first division may not have received the full allowance to 
which they were entitled, and at subsequent divisions their 
"rights," as they were called, would be allowed. Some of 
the allotments and rights were traded for money or other 
consideration, and it came about thai a few persons became 



8 

holders of large tracts. Speculation in land increased with 
the growth of the settlements. In this manner the territory 
of Quinsigamond was apportioned in four separate divisions. 
A rough survey of these allotments was made and a record 
thereof was kept, which is known as the "Proprietors' 
Records." Various causes combined to confuse these allot- 
ments so that they frequently overlapped each other and 
these errors were adjusted subsequently. In addition to 
the divisions already mentioned there were others for the 
support of the ministry, called "Ministerial Lots," and for 
the support of schools, called "School Lots." That part 
undivided was "Common." Thus, a person might have a 
lot bounded on the north by A, on the east by B and every 
other way by common. 

To avoid the dry detail of fact, imagination and story 
will be called on to enforce history, in this narration, so 
that we shall not seem to be traveling over dusty roads, 
on which a scorching sun pours his fervent rays unrelieved 
by refreshing shade and cooling stream. 

We will introduce ourselves to a traveler on horseback 
just as he is passing Slocum's tavern in Shrewsbury, on 
the Connecticut road a short distance east of Quinsigamond 
Pond, on his way from the Bay to Agawam. He informs 
us that the night was spent at Squire Farrar's tavern, the 
other side of Shrewsbury, kept by Captain Levi Pease, 
who he learned was also the proprietor (in connection with 
Colonel Reuben Sikes of Worcester), of a line of stages 
plying between Boston and New York. The Captain told 
him something of his family and said he was descended 
from Robert and Margaret of Great Braddon, Essex Co., 
England. His son Robert 2 came to Boston from the port 
of Ipswich, England, in April, 1634, with his brother John 
and his oldest son Robert 3 ; his wife Marie came later; 
Robert, 2 born in 1607, settled at Salem and died there in 
1644. His son Robert 3 married in December, 1691, Harriet 
Warriner and settled at Enfield, Conn. Nathaniel, the son 



of Robert, 3 was born at Enfield, Conn., in 1694; he married 
in 1730 Miriam Pease, a relative, and went to Blanford, 
Conn., where he kept a tavern winch he sold out to his son 
Levi in 1771. Levi was born at Enfield, Conn., in 1739, and 
died at Shrewsbury Jan. 28, 1824; his wife was Hannah 
Sexton. He was a blacksmith. During the Revolution he 
was bearer of despatches. After the war he began staging 
between Somers and Hartford, Conn. In company with 
Reuben Sikes he commenced running stages from the 
Sign of the Lamb in Boston, Oct. 22, 1783. The first 
night the stop was made at Martin's in Northborough ; 
the second at Rice's in Brookficld; the third at Pease's 
in Somers, Conn.; and the fourth at Hartford. An adver- 
tisement in the Massachusetts Spy of Nov. 13, 1783, confirms 
this statement. In 1786 the route was extended from 
Portsmouth, N. H., to Savannah, Ga. They carried the 
mails and for a long time Mr. Pease was the only contractor 
for carrying them in New England. He received the first 
charter for a turnpike in Massachusetts, going through 
Palmer and Wilbraham to Springfield. He took most of 
the stock of the road and lost it all. He kept tavern at 
Blanford, Conn., from 1771 to 1776. From 1786 to 1789 
he kept the New York stage house in Boston. He went 
to Shrewsbury in 1794 and succeeded Mr. Farrar. He 
left a good name, and was spoken of as dignified, pleasant, of 
agreeable manners, with a remarkably majestic appearance. 
Our traveler also learned from his host the following 
facts about his partner's family. Reuben was of the sixth 
generation from Richard Sikes of England, who appeared 
in Dorchester in 1635; he was a member of the church 
there in 1639, and was made a freeman in 1642; his wife's 
name was Phoebe; he removed to Springfield m 1642, 
and died there in 1675. He was highly esteemed, and he 
and his sons held important offices in the town. His son 
Increase was born at Springfield in 1644 and died there 
March 24, 1712; he married Abigail Fowler. Nathaniel, 



10 

the son of Increase, was born at Springfield July 7, 1673, 
and died there May 13, 1727; his wife was Elizabeth Ball. 
John, the next in the family line, was born at Springfield 
December 30, 1697, and died there December 25, 1733; 
his wife was Thankfull Warriner. Reuben, the father of 
Colonel Sikes, was born at Springfield Sept. 8, 1730, and 
died at Somers, Conn., December 24, 1804; he married 
Thankfull Buell; he held the office of judge and was a 
man of great influence. Col. Reuben, the second of twelve 
children, was born at Somers, Conn., July 13, 1756, and 
died at Worcester August 19, 1824. He married (1) in 
1778 Mary Kibbe, by whom he had Mary, born in 1779, 
who married August 20, 1796, Moses Grosvenor of Pomfret, 
Conn. By this union there was born January 14, 1800, 
a daughter Mary, who married (1) April 12, 1824, Ed- 
ward D. Bangs of Worcester, the son of Judge Edward and 
Hannah (Lynde); he died April 1, 1838, and she married 
(2) Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, June 2, 1856. Mr. 
Salisbury was born March 8, 1798, and died August 24, 
1884. Reuben married (2) October 3, 1782, Eunice McCoy 
of Somers, Conn., by whom he had seven children; three of 
his daughters, who lived to advanced ages, are remembered 
by persons still living. A son, Henry McCoy, was a mer- 
chant in Worcester; he married in 1811 Hannah Cobb 
Smith of Boston; they had a daughter Elizabeth, who 
married William Pratt, the son of Nymphas and Submit 
(Howe) (Kingsbury) of Shrewsbury. Mr. Pratt practiced 
law in "Worcester, being associated for a time with Pliny 
Merrick. Mr. Pratt had three children, two of whom died 
in infancy; the third, Clara C, is living, the widow of 
Charles S. Davis. Mrs. Pratt married (2) Ebenezer Wiswell 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and had by him three children, one 
of whom married Edward T. Sprague and is living at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. Mr. Sikes was a blacksmith and a soldier 
in the Revolutionary army, where he rose to the rank of 
Colonel. Mrs. Davis has in her possession a powder-horn 



11 

marked, " Reuben Sikos his Bora made by him in Roxbury 
Dec ye 2 nd 1775." He kept tavern at Hartford and Suffield 
in Connecticut, in Wilbraham in this state; and in May, 
1S07, he came to Worcester and kept the Sikes Coffee 
House till his death, the most popular tavern in the state 
outside of Boston. 

Our traveler spoke of the residence of Major-General 
Artemas Ward, which he passed, and asked if the story of 
the lack of cordiality between General Ward and General 
Washington was true. We told him that General Ward's 
relatives denied the existence of any such feeling. He said 
it seemed as if there must be some foundation for the 
statement from the fact that General Washington did not 
call on his compatriot in arms when he passed his house 
in 1789, but did stop at Farrar's tavern, a quarter of a 
mile beyond. An ancient mile-stone stands by the road- 
side opposite the Ward house, on which is lettered, Boston 
33, Springfield 63, Albany 155. 

By this time we have reached a parting of the ways, 
in the fork of which a substantial three-cornered stone 
guide-post is seen; on one side a hand points "To Wor. 
4 Ms"; on the other a hand points "To Hoi 7 Ms"; and 
on the back there is scarcely discernable "From Boston." 
Over the right hand road, laid out in 1730 and established 
in August, 1790, the sixth Massachusetts turnpike, extend- 
ing to Amherst, was relaid in June, 1800. The traveler 
was told that if he should follow that road he would soon 
reach Harlow's Mills, where he could bait his horse under 
the roomy shed. While the animal is eating the miller 
would tell him of Sewall's brook just crossed, so called 
from Judge Sewall who formerly owned a large number of 
acres thereabouts; of the road around the north end of 
the pond, later overflowed by reason of its sinking; of the 
crossing at right angles the road leading to Boylston; of 
the well conducted Jonathan Lovell farm; of the Deacon 
David Bigelow tavern under the spreading branches of a 



12 

large elm, where mine host would furnish a mug of his 
best punch; and of the continuance of the pike in a straight 
course up over the "Summit" and thence onward through 
Holden, Rutland and other towns to its termination. 

Taking the left hand road at the guide-post, the traveler, 
a short distance north of the present bridge at the fording 
place of the upper end of the pond, meets the four horse 
stage-coach of Messrs. Pease and Sikes, driven by the 
Captain himself, on its way from Hartford to Boston. The 
coach is filled with passengers, some of whom have been three 
days on their journey; they hope to reach their destination 
late in the day. Mounting the steep ascent from the pond the 
tavern stand of Captain Israel Jennison is soon reached. On 
the way thither the sweet air from the pines which the traveler 
inhaled was quite different from the pungent laden odors 
that offend the nostrils of the passer-by of to-day. While 
resting and partaking of refreshment a brief history of the 
Captain and his hostelry will occupy the time. Israel was 
the son of Peter, a brother of Judge William the grandson 
of Robert who was in Watertown in 1635. William came 
to Worcester about 1720 and purchased large tracts of 
land in the centre of the town; he bore a conspicuous 
part in the settlement of the place. Israel became an 
extensive landholder on both sides of the pond. In the 
allotment of lands William Payne, a blacksmith of Boston, 
Stephen Minot, Thomas Haggit and others received tracts 
lying on the north and south sides of the Connecticut road 
and west of the pond. A considerable part of these lands 
passed into the hands of Israel by purchase, with some on 
the east side of the pond also. At his death in 1782 he 
devised to his son Samuel Jennison a large portion of his es- 
tate. After Samuel's death his widow Rebekah conveyed the 
most of it to the inhabitants of Worcester, and it constitutes 
the present Poor Farm. Prior to his death Israel conveyed 
to his son Samuel, in 1775, one-half of an acre, the old 
tavern stand. Samuel's widow sold this in 1818 to the 



13 

inhabitants of Worcester and it was used for the Poor 
Farm till 1858, when it was sold to Oran A. Kelley. This 
was at the corner of the present Lincoln and Boylston 
streets; the latter was relocated in 1804. Persons passing 
to-day can hardly believe that this was a busy place, where 
business was transacted for more than seventy years in 
tavern and store by Captain Israel, his son Samuel and 
Nathaniel Curtis, his brother-in-law. Nothing remains to 
mark the spot except a cellar hole and an ash house of 
brick, a perfect cube of six feet. The house was a long 
wooden one facing the easterly corner of the lot. Captain 
Israel's first wife was Mary Heywood, the daughter of 
Daniel and Hannah (Ward). His second wife was Mar- 
guerita (Olivier) Coolidge, the widow of Joseph, a prominent 
merchant of Boston and ancestor of the eminent financier, 
T. Jefferson Coolidge. She was the thirteenth child in a 
family of fifteen children of Anthoine and Marie (Sigourne) 
of Boston, Huguenots, who came here from France with 
the Sigournes, Johonnots and others in 1686. Marguerita 
was born at Annapolis, N. S., November 8, 1726; was 
married first November 18, 1746, and became the mother of 
eight children, one of whom, Margaret, married Jacob 
Sweetser, a man of considerable wealth in Lancaster. Her 
second marriage was to Captain Israel, December 9, 1775. 
She was married the third time to Rev. Joseph Wheeler 
of Worcester May 20, 1784. Last of all the woman died 
also December 25, 1816, having survived her third husband. 
Her remains lie in the tomb of her son Joseph Coolidge, 
in King's Chapel burying-ground in Boston. At the death 
of Captain Israel sixty-four acres of his estate on the south 
side of the road were set off to his widow in her right. This 
claim she and her husband Joseph Wheeler relinquished 
December 3, 1702. The old Olivier Bible in French, con- 
taining the family register, written in a clear, bold hand, 
is in the Boston Atheneum. 

Before reaching the Jennison tavern one of the old roads 



14 

of the town, leading to Grafton over the summit of the 
hill to the east, then called Oak Hill, was passed; the 
north end of the road was laid out November 25, 1719; 
a part of it north of Wigwam Hill was called Love Lane; 
the entire street now bears the name of Plantation. Nearly- 
opposite the end of this street there stands a pile of palatial 
buildings half hidden by beautiful shade trees; in their 
rear are barns comparable in size to those that the rich 
man mentioned in the Bible would have built had his life 
been prolonged. The front of these buildings is approached 
through an archway of maples, flanked with massive stone 
posts, over the entrance of which one who can discern to 
read, may see, "Ho! all ye poor, shiftless, lazy, incompetent, 
incapable! turn ye in hither; sumptuous lodgings are 
provided for ye by the thrifty, industrious and diligent 
citizens of the town." 

Resuming his journey the traveler meets two men on 
horseback coming away from a farmhouse on his right. 
They are Captain Lewis Barnard and his son General 
Ebenezer L., on their way into the country to purchase 
cattle ; they are extensive traders in live stock in connection 
with farming. Their father John was the son of Isaac, who 
removed from Watertown to Grafton, thence to Sutton and 
afterwards to New Worcester, where he died March 18, 
1788. Capt. John was born in Sutton August 11, 1743, 
and died in Worcester September 17, 1830. He bought, 
December 4, 1792, of William Jennison two hundred and six 
acres lying on both sides of the road, that the latter received 
from his father Captain Israel. John deeded one-half of 
his farm to his son Lewis, March 4, 1801,. and at his death 
in September, 1830, the remainder was devised to him. 
Lewis had three sons, John, Ebenezer L. and Lewis, Jr., 
who inherited the farm at their father's death in 1853. 
Thence it passed through numerous conveyances from John 
and Lewis, Rejoice Newton, Guardian, Frederick J. Barnard 
and others to Samuel Davis and William R. Hooper, and 



15 

from them to its presenl owner, Oran A. Kelley, who pur- 
chased parts of it May 120 and June 3, 1862, some having 
been sold previously to others. Ebenezer L. married Caroline 
Sweetser, the daughter of Samuel of Athol, by whom he 
had five children, Lewis Lovell, Frederick Jones, Edward 
Lovell, Caroline and Eliza. He built a house on State 
street, and died of consumption July 9, 1850, soon after 
moving into it. Of John and Lewis more will be said later. 
The farmhouse and out buildings are situated on ground 
sloping upwards from the road, showing every indication 
of thrift and good management; the house was shaded 
formerly by two elms of massive size, one of which was 
destro) r ed by a cyclone several years since; the other 
remains. 

Passing on to higher ground there is pointed out to the 
traveler the site of one of the earliest settlers of the town. 
Ephraim Curtis came here from Sudbury in 1673. He 
laid claim to a large tract of land, but was obliged to re- 
linquish a part of it, and was granted land in another 
section of the town. His first house was a log hut probably. 
The second house, built on or near its site, was, like many 
of that period, two stories in front and had a long roof 
sloping back to one low story at the rear, with the large 
central chimney in the upright part. It was a tavern stand 
and a recent occupant remembered the bar in one of the 
front rooms. While this second house was undergoing 
repairs in 1848 it was destroyed by fire. A new house was 
erected on its site, which was occupied till a few weeks 
ago by the widow of Tyler P. Curtis. His son William 
C. carries on the farm, which has never passed out of the 
possession of the family. Two beautiful elms of great size 
formerly added to the attractiveness of the place, but one 
after the other yielded to the vicissitudes of storms and the 
infirmities of age. A younger tree bids fair to take their 
place and furnish shade for later generations. Ephraim 
had for neighbors Hugh and William Gray, William Knight, 



16 

Daniel Heywood and Thomas Haggit. December 10, 1735, 
he deeded to "my Dutifull son John 140 acres a part of 
my farm of 250 acres." 

Next and contiguous to the Curtis farm we come to that 
of Ebenezer Wellington, whose house is on the right of 
the road several hundred feet back from it. Nearly in 
front of it and close to the road is the small house of Jascn 
Duncan, a relative, one of the Scotch Presbyterians who 
attempted a settlement in the town in 1718, but whose 
house of worship was destroyed when partially built, by 
a mob more zealous than liberal for the service of religion. 
Their congregation was scattered and many of them left 
the town. Mr. Wellington purchased land from several 
parties and his farm has come down through many con- 
veyances to its present owner, Edward Buxton. 

On the opposite side of the road there was an old house 
in which Caleb Wall says William Stowell built carding 
machines many years ago, but I have not been able to 
corroborate that statement. The house gave place to the 
beautiful modern one of Albert W. Andrews. The well 
and sweep still remain. 

Following the still ascending road there stands on the 
right hand a brick house on land formerly owned by William 
Gray, from whom it passed through several owners to Levi 
Lincoln and from him to Paul Goodell, who sold it with 
other land to George W. Rugg; from him Timothy Bancroft 
bought it April 3, 1848. Since his death the farm has 
been divided into house lots and is known as "Bancroft 
Park." 

At the summit of the road there is the farm of Joseph 
Bond, where Thomas Knight formerly lived and kept a 
tavern. This was a part of the land originally laid out 
to Thomas Haggit, one portion of which, March 19, 1733-4, 
he deeded to "my Dutifull Daughter Johanna Knight wife 
of Edward Knight"; another portion he gave to "my 
Dutifull Daughter Lydia Flagg, wife of Ebenezer Flagg 



17 

January 9, 1739." Mr. Bond purchased of John Glcason, 
Tyler P. Curtis, Josiah Brittan, Jr., and others. 

As the traveler proceeds, he is told that his way into 
the town will be descending from this point. His attention 
is directed to the long line of hills on his left, the most 
prominent of which is the highest land in the town, it 
being 777 feet above sea level. Beyond, but not in sight, 
is Millstone Hill, from which by a vote of the proprietors 
in September, 1773, one hundred acres were set apart as 
a quarry for the free use of the citizens. On the north 
side of the hill William Crawford, Daniel Heywood and 
Charles Adams were given land that passed later to John 
Green. Thomas Green of Leicester in June, 1757, gave to 
his son John one hundred acres that he bought of Thomas 
Adams. Additions were made from time to time till it 
became one of the, largest estates in the town. A brief 
account of the Green family appeared in an article entitled, 
"A typical New England house a hundred years ago." 

On the traveler's right there is spread out a broad ex- 
panse of rich intervale, gradually rising towards the north, 
where it meets Indian Hill, the highest point of which is 
crowned with farm buildings that will be referred to later. 
In front is swampy ground; around the north side of it 
the road winds and at a short distance meets another at 
right angles to it. Before reaching this point an old brick 
house is passed on the right, on land once in the possession 
of John Curtis, a son of Ephraim, from whom it passed 
to Alfred Smith and afterward to Benjamin Flagg, who 
sold one hundred acres to Samuel Brooks April 30, 1766. 
His son George came into possession, by will and he sold 
it to Alfred Dwight Foster April 12, 1826. His heirs sold 
an undivided half of it to Moore M. Chaffin, and from 
that estate came the present North Park. 

We have reached the tavern of Leonard Clark, where 
the traveler will be left. We go to meet a person approach- 
ing the town from the north. At the place now called the 
2 



18 

"Summit," so named by the railroad that passes it by a 
deep cut, because it is the highest point of the road between 
the town and West Boylston, or "Five Points" by reason of 
five roads that converge here, we see a gentleman mounted 
on a fine horse coming up the steep ascent, who meets us 
at the intersection at right angles of the road he is on with 
the sixth Massachusetts turnpike. He politely inquires if 
he is on the right road to Worcester, and is told that he 
is and that it will be a pleasure to accompany him and 
point out the places of interest. He says that he left 
Lancaster early in the morning and passed across Boylston 
common, and he speaks of a beautiful avenue of maples 
about two miles back. He is informed that they are on 
the farm of Rev. William Nash, whose house stood near 
one end of the maples, but afterwards was moved towards 
the common. The trees were set out by Charles Nash, 
his son, who erected the brick house standing on the site 
of the old one after his father's death. Mr. Charles Nash 
taught school in a house not far from his ancestral home. 
A notice of Mr. Nash appeared in a paper on the " Thomas 
Street School House." Rev. Mr. Nash preached in the 
meeting house on the common several years. The year 
before he resigned his office the house was destroyed by 
fire; another was erected in its place immediately. Finally 
the denomination abandoned preaching services and the 
house was closed many years. Recently the property was 
sold to the Congregational Society, which was driven from 
its location in the valley by the encroachment of the Metro- 
politan Reservoir, and the old house has given place to 
a modern structure. Rev. Mr. Nash possessed some oddities 
that cropped out occasionally. This story is told of him. 
He was in the habit of taking a dram at a certain hour 
and was much disturbed if interrupted at that time. A 
neighbor called one day for a friendly chat. As the hour 
for his accustomed indulgence drew near Mr. Nash became 
fidgety, squirmed about in his chair and, when he could 



19 

refrain no longer, said, "Neighbor A, tills is the hour at 
which I usually shirt myself and I shall have to be excused." 
Neighbor A quickly replied, "Well, Parson Nash, I am 
reminded that this is my usual time for shirting myself 
and I will bid you good morning. If you ever should be 
at my house at shirting time I should be glad to have 
you join me." 

We congratulate the gentleman on his entrance to the 
town over one of its most sightly and beautiful eminences. 
We ask him to turn back for a view of Mount Wachusett, 
ten miles distant as the bird flies, the highest point of 
land in the eastern part of the state, it being 2,018 feet 
above the level of the sea, distinctly outlined through the 
clear atmosphere, with the white houses of the village of 
Princeton snuggled on its southern slope. Far beyond the 
outline of Monadnock is dimly seen. A little to the left 
is Rutland, where recently the state has established a 
sanatarium for consumptives, on a commanding elevation 
1,250 feet above sea level. Mount Ararat is pointed out 
in the foreground, where some one wildly conjectured that 
a portion of Noah's ark had been discovered. Beyond and 
not far distant rises the long crest of Winter Hill, on which 
can be seen the ancient house of Benjamin Whitney. A 
little to the south of that lies Hancock Hill, once the property 
of Governor Hancock. The high hill on the horizon further 
to the right is Asnebumskit, behind which, just concealed 
from view, is the town of Paxton, 1,135 feet above sea 
level. In the valley at his feet the silver thread of Weasel 
Brook winds its way east of Danson's or North Pond, whose 
waters shimmer in the afternoon sun. Following southward 
Tetasset, latterly called Tatnuck, where Benjamin Flagg 
has a tavern, meets the eye. On the horizon beyond, the 
town of Leicester, 1,007 feet above the sea, can be seen 
six miles away. Turning backwards towards the left the 
point of the spire of the meeting house in Boylston rises 
solitary out of the encompassing forest. Beyond, just over 



20 

the horizon in the northeast, are the towns of Berlin and 
Bolton; in the latter place there is a meeting house over 
one hundred years old whose roof is still covered with the 
shingles originally placed thereon. Running the eye along 
the eastern horizon the white spire of the meeting house 
in Shrewsbury arrests the attention. There Parson Sumner 
dispensed the gospel sixty-three years. Midway in the 
valley Wigwam Hill, where Sagamore Pennasanet had his 
seat, is pointed out. At its base are the placid waters of 
Long Pond, with its winding, indented shores clothed with 
verdure, stretching away towards the southeast till it ends 
in the town of Grafton, which can be seen on a distant 
hill. Nearer and more to the south are lesser elevations, 
Oak, Sagatabscot, where Digory Sargent, an early settler, 
was slain by the Indians, his wife carried off and tomahawked 
on Tetasset Hill because of her inability to keep up with 
the retreating savages, and Pakachoag or Boggachoag, the 
seat of a tribe of Nipmuck Indians to whom Eliot the 
Apostle preached. The gentleman gazes with delight at 
the panorama of valley, hills, mountains and waters spread 
out before him and reverently exclaims, "How wonderful 
are thy works. In wisdom hast thou made them all." 
He asks whither the straight road leads that can be seen for 
a long distance, and is told that it is the sixth Massachusetts 
turnpike between Shrewsbury and Amherst. He is re- 
minded that over this road that part of Burgoyne's prisoners 
who were confined in barracks at Rutland, marched in 
1777. A dim tradition is that two large chestnut trees at 
the corner of the roads on this spot were called Burgoyne's 
chestnuts. It goes on to say that the soldiers rested here 
and dropped some chestnuts that sprang up and produced 
the trees. "That is an interesting statement, if true," said 
the gentleman. A schoolhouse at the intersection of the 
roads is pointed out. In a deed dated September 9, 1772, 
Isaac Knight gave to the town a piece of land in these 
words: "In Consideration of the Regard I have for the 



21 

Inhabitants of the Northerly Part of the Town of Worcester 
in the County of Worcester which Were in the Month of 
March last by the said Town of Worcester Set off as a 
Squadron for keeping a School and to Encourage them to 
Build a School House," etc. A short distance westward 
on the turnpike is the tavern and farm of Colonel George 
Moore. This was a part of the tract laid out to William 
Taylor, that descended to Isaac Witherbee, who in 1745 
deeded sixty acres to Josiah Peirce. In 1792 Josiah deeded 
one-half of his farm of two hundred acres to his son Abijah, 
and from him it came down to George Moore in 1823; his 
heirs deeded it to Luther G. Moore. It is now owned by 
Josiah B. Shattuck, and others. 

Proceeding towards the town the gentleman inquires the 
name of the road he is on and is told that it is called the 
"Lancaster Road" and is one of the oldest, and was laid 
out Nov. 6, 1752, from Worcester to Lancaster, "through 
Thomas Cowden's land as the road is trod over a place 
called Burnt Coat Plain to the County road by Mr. John 
Fisk's." He asks the significance of the name of the plain 
and is told that we must fall back on tradition. As early 
as 1714 the description in one deed reads, "near Burnt 
Coat Plain"; another reads, " joyning to Burnt Coat Plain." 
The tradition is that an early settler, in clearing up his 
land, set fire to a brush heap and accidentally burned up 
his coat. "That does not seem to be sufficient to give a 
name to this great plain, embracing hundreds of acres," 
said the gentleman. "I should suppose that a tragedy, 
rather than a comedy, had been enacted here." "You 
have given me a clue to a supposable transaction," I replied. 
It is not improbable that some of the early settlers were 
surprised by the Indians, tomahawked, scalped and their 
coats burned. One of these settlers may have escaped and 
fled towards the northeast; was apprehended by other 
Indians and deprived of his breeches, for it is of record 
that John Hancock sold his Breeches Meadow in that 



22 

section to Benjamin Child October 6, 1783. Escaping a 
second time the harassed fugitive fled in a nearly opposite 
direction to the town of Hubbardston, where he was again 
waylaid by Indians, in ascending a hill and stripped of 
his shirt that they burned; thereafter the place was known 
as "Burnt Shirt Hill." Like the Wandering Jew the 
settler may be fleeing on still, though, unlike him, clad 
either in fig leaves or the skins of wild animals. 

While engaged in conversation one of those little red 
schoolhouses is passed that our ancestors planted about 
as soon as they did the meeting house, both of which became 
such mighty factors in the formation of a nation of freemen. 
Although the house has disappeared persons are living who 
received all their early instruction therein. A short dis- 
tance beyond is an old brick house painted white, formerly 
belonging to Jonathan Knight; it came to him through 
several purchases from Edward Knight, an early settler 
and large landholder on the plain; the present owner is 
Anton Gross. 

The tavern stand of Edward Knight, at the corner of 
a road running down past Isaac Gleason's to the sixth 
Massachusetts turnpike near the Jonathan Lovell place, 
already spoken of, soon appears ; at sight of it the gentleman 
decides to stop and remain over night. After a bountiful 
supper to which all the guests do full justice, the company 
gathers round the wide open fireplace and conversation 
becomes general. In reply to an inquiry about the estate 
connected with the tavern the landlord says, "that in 
1715 a committee of five, consisting of Thomas How, John 
Ballantine, William Dudley, William Taylor and Adam 
Winthrop, was appointed by the General Court to parti- 
tion the lands included in the place called Quansikomon 
among the settlers. The committee set off to themselves 
for their services four hundred acres apiece, embracing the 
whole of this plain, making in all 2,143 acres that included 
143 acres additional set off to Adam Winthrop." This 



23 

tract extended from the Shrewsbury line on the east nearly 
to Brooks street on the west, and from the present Holden 
line on the north nearly to Lincoln street on the south. 
On the southern border of this tract they laid out a road 
one hundred feet wide, that was discontinued in 1733, 
restored to common land and afterwards, in 1747, sold to 
Captain Israel Jennison. Visions of a future city hall, 
post-office, art museum, high school, technical school and 
colleges must have floated before the eyes of the committee. 
Yet it was no chimera, for there is no finer elevation in 
Worcester than the old Burnt Coat Plain or Indian Hill. 
"The committee did not hold their divisions long. John 
Ballantine's was sold in 1735 to an ancestor of mine whose 
name I bear, the first one of the numerous Knights who 
inhabited this plain. William Dudley sold his to Estes 
Hatch, who afterwards transferred it to John Murray. 
Adam Winthrop sold his 514 acres to Thomas Green, who 
called it "my^ Harvest Hill Farm." William Taylor sold 
his to Joseph Heath and from him it came to me April 
1, 1785, after two prior transfers of 191 acres to other 
persons." Subsequently this farm was sold to John Flavel 
Clark in 1827 and 1830. At and before this time Mr. 
Clark held the office of jailer from 1819 to 1837; he was 
succeeded in that position by Asa Mathews, who occupied 
the place from 1837 to 1849. Rufus Carter became his 
successor and retained the position till 1872. If reports 
are true Mr. Clark was not as successful in farming as he 
was in guarding criminals. Instead of taking time by the 
forelock he allowed the old man to seize his. It used to 
be said that he dug his potatoes with a crowbar, so late 
in the season did he begin to harvest his crops. However 
it must have been a malicious slander. Mr. Clark had 
a son Flavel, one of those unfortunate ones who call out 
our sympathy and pity. He was harmless and the spark 
of intellect burned very dimly. He died September, 1902, 
over eighty years old. His' case is one of those ntysteries 



24 

that are unrevealed to us. It served, however, to bring 
out in clear light the Christlike love and tender solicitude 
of his sister, Mrs. Mary J. Wadley, of Augusta, Ga., who, 
notwithstanding her own family cares and deep sorrows, 
supplied her brother's wants for more than forty years. 

After this narration our gentleman said that he noticed 
a well by the road with a carefully constructed curb near 
the entrance of the tavern, and asked if there was any 
special interest attached to it. The landlord said he dug 
it and gave it to the public to be free forever. This caused 
one of the company to speak of the wells of ancient time, 
of that one over the possession of which the servants of 
Abimelech quarrelled with Abraham; of those that Abra- 
ham dug and the Philistines filled up and Isaac afterward 
opened. Another called attention to the well around which 
clustered the beautiful pastoral story of Abraham's servant 
in his search for a wife for Isaac. A third told of the well 
of Jacob at Samaria on which our Saviour sat and revealed 
himself to the woman as the well of living water. Another 
spoke of the well at Bahurim, down into which the spies 
of David went and were concealed by a woman, who spread 
a cloth over its mouth and strewed ground corn thereon. 
Another brought to our recollection Sir Walter Scott's 
story of St. Ronans Well in the town of Inverleithen upon 
Trent. Another alluded to Mauls' well, told of in the 
"House of Seven Gables" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, into 
which if one looked or in the waters of which, if one bathed, 
he would be seized with forgetfulness. The gentleman 
spoke of the importance attached to wells in hot and dry 
climates, of village wells and town pumps, places of meeting 
for friendly chat and gossip. He also called to remembrance 
the well dug in 1690 in the garrison compound at Deerfield 
that furnished water to the imprisoned inhabitants when 
beseiged by Indians. One of the company said he had 
been puzzled with the story narrated by that veracious 
traveler Mark Twain, who tells of the well in the citadel 



25 

at Cairo that Joseph dug with his own hands through the 
solid rock ninety feet deep, and of the same donkeys he 
employed to raise the water still at work, and how tired 
they seemed to be. The landlord said he was led to dig 
the well at the road side and make it free by reading the 
story of the Captain's well, beautifully told by Mrs. Harriet 
Prescott Spofford and rendered into verse by Whittier. 
He said he would read the poem if agreeable to the company. 
Before commencing he related the circumstances connected 
with it, as follows: "Captain Valentine Bagley was wrecked 
on the coast of Arabia and nearly perished -with thirst. 
He made a vow to dig a well that should be free to every 
one if he should again reach his home." Two or three 

stanzas of the poem are here given: 

* * * * 

"And if ever I reach my home again, 
Where earth has springs and the sky has rain, 
I will dig a well for the passers by, 

And none shall suffer from thirst as I." 

* * * * 

"But when the morning came he called for his spade, 
'I must pay my debt to the Lord,' he said, 
'And the well I promised by Osman's Sea, 

I am digging for him in Amesbury.' 

* * * * 

'Why dig you here,' asked the passer by. 
'Is there gold or silver the road so nigh?' 
'No friend,' he answered, 'but under this sod 
Is the blessed water, the wine of God.' " 

A member of the company who had been a quiet listener, 
but had taken no part in the conversation, asked if there 
was time for the story of another well. A ready response 
being given, he said that many years ago Captain Nathaniel 
Perley of Rowley built a vessel of ninety tons burden on 
Rowley common near his house. No water being near his 
neighbors quizzed him frequently during the building, 
probably much as old Captain Noah's townspeople did him 
while he was constructing the ark, saying, "What are you 
thinking of?" "How are you going to launch her?" 
"Aren't you a little beside yourself?" "Will a heavy dew 



26 

float her?" But the Captain kept his own counsel and 
worked on till the vessel was completed. Then he collected 
more than one hundred yoke of oxen from all parts of the 
county and hauled it a distance of one and a half miles 
to the water, where it was launched successfully. On the 
way there was a well at which a stop was made for rest. 
The Captain had provided a barrel of rum for the occasion; 
the head was knocked in; the contents were poured into 
the well and the people told to help themselves. For a 
long time thereafter it was a common saying that the 
Captain launched his vessel with the help of a hundred 
yoke of oxen and a barrel of rum. 

One of the company who was impressed with the ludicrous 
side of the story, said that all present could recall the 
lines told them in childhood as follows: 

Ding, dong, bell. The cat's in the well ! Who put her in? 
Little Billy Green. Who pulled her out? Great Johnny Stout. 
"O, what a naughty boy was that, 
Thus to maltreat poor pussy cat, 
Who never did him any harm, 
But caught the mice in grandpa's barn." 

Before retiring it was proposed that all should join in 
singing "The Old Oaken Bucket." The gentleman traveler 
said that the well that occasioned the writing of the poem 
by Samuel Woodworth is in Greenbush, a village of Scituate ; 
he had drank water from the well and carried away with 
him a bottle of it. The well is within three or four feet 
of the house and the old fashioned sweep still hangs over 
it. A verse of the poem is given: 

"How sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it, 

As, poised on the curb, it inclined to my lips, 
Not a full blushing goblet could tempt me to leave it, 

Though filled with the nectar that Jupiter sips. 
And now, far removed from the loved situation, 

The tear of regret will intrusively swell, 
As fancy reverts to my father's plantation, 

And sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well. 
The old oaken bucket, the iron bound bucket, 

The moss-covered bucket which hangs in the well." 



27 

In the morning after a refreshing rest and a substan- 
tial breakfast the gentleman and his guide resumed their 
journey. On the opposite side of the road is the farm that 
in later years became the property of William C. Clark, 
who was landlord of the old United States Hotel at the 
corner of Main and Mechanic streets; the hotel was subse- 
quently moved back on to Mechanic street and a building 
erected on its site, for many years known as Clark's block. 
Presently the farm of Jonathan A. White is reached, with 
its one-story house and barns adjoining. In reply to an 
inquiry the gentleman is told that Mr. White was born in 
Heath, N. H., December 18, 1801, the son of David, of 
Charlemont, and Abigail the daughter of Jonathan and 
Tirzah (Field) Ashley. He came to Worcester when of age, 
with a companion, seeking work. They called at the farm 
of Joel Gleason on the west side of the road leading to 
Barber's, at what is now called Northville, asking for 
employment. Mr. Gleason hired them, though his family 
objected to Mr. White on account of his small size. He 
disappointed them by doing as much work as any of the 
men and by his diligence and faithfulness. Mr. Gleason 
was the son of Jonathan, who owned a large farm lying 
on both sides of Weasel Brook, which he divided amongst 
his several children as they married. He used to say that 
he could see some part of each of his children's farms from 
his own dooryard. One child, Betsey, born October 16, 
1793, married Amos Flagg March 31, 1816, and settled on 
this farm of which we are speaking. Mr. White accom- 
panied the new couple to their home, as the hired man. 
Mr. Flagg died at the end of eight years and Betsey gave 
her hand to Jonathan April 6, 1825. Three months before 
their marriage she deeded her farm to him. Some of her 
friends spoke of the risk she was running by this act. She 
replied, "If I am willing to trust my life to him I am sure 
I can my acres." Her confidence was not misplaced; they 
lived together happily fifty-three years. He survived her 



28 

ten years and died at the age of eighty-seven. After their 
marriage he added to his farm by the purchase of land 
on the opposite side of the road. Mr. White said that 
when he came to Worcester there were only three houses 
on Summer, or Back, street. One was at or near Lincoln 
square; the second was Daniel G. Wheeler's, that was 
standing within a few years at the corner of Exchange 
street, where his daughters Frances M., Nancy C. and 
Elizabeth L. lived so many years. Mr. Wheeler's land 
extended westerly to Mill Brook and southerly as far as 
Bridge street. The third house was at Washington square, 
occupied by a negro family of the name of Hemenway. 
A daughter, Hannah, was a well known person in town. 
She died a few years ago at the age of ninety. She was 
a famous cook, as was also her mother Hannah, and many 
a girl thought she could not be well married without one 
of Hannah's wedding cakes. She was cook at my grand- 
father's. My grandmother was an invalid during the last 
years of her life, and a housekeeper, a relative of the family, 
was employed. There was frequent friction between the 
two servants, which my grandfather, a man of peace, often 
mollified in a quiet way. That condition of things could 
not continue and at last the cook left, much to my grand- 
father's regret. Neither time nor membership in the First 
Baptist Church removed the recollection of her grievances. 
Riding near her house on May street, a short time before 
her death, with my wife, my cousin and the housekeeper 
alluded to, my cousin suggested that we should stop and 
drink some of Hannah's root beer, as an excuse to see her 
and add a few pennies to her meagre income. After par- 
taking of the beverage my cousin said, "Hannah, you 
remember me, don't you." "0, yes, Mrs. Damon, I allers 

member you." "This is Mrs. C ," my cousin said, 

"you have not forgotten her." Straightening up herself 

she instantly said, "I don't member Mrs. C . Nevah 

knew her." To relieve the embarrassment my cousin said, 



29 

turning to mo, "This is Henry Martyn, of course you 
remember him." "Laws yes," she said, "I member him, 
but I don't member nuthin good of him." The horse 
becoming uneasy at that point, we bade her goodby and 
drove on, indulging in a hearty laugh. 

During this narration the travelers had reached the end 
of the elevated plateau over which the road took them. 
The gentleman could not withhold expressions of pleasure 
at the beauties spread around. He thought the view from 
this point superior to any he had seen. The valley at the 
west was nearer and objects were more distinctly seen. 
The waters of North Pond seemed to be within a stone's 
throw. The town lay nestled among the hills. He was 
reminded of the Psalmist's words, "As the mountains are 
round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his 
people henceforth even forever." A cluster of farm build- 
ings in the valley below east of the pond is the home of 
Robert Barber, one of the Presb3^terians spoken of early 
in this narrative. He obtained his broad acres in part from 
Samuel Waldo, a son of Cornelius, an extensive land-owner, 
and brother of the first Daniel, by deed dated February 
1, 1744; a part from James Whitney; a part from Thomas 
Stearns; and still another from John Box and Benjamin 
Austin of Boston, attorneys for Sarah Brooke, executrix 
of John Brooke of London, England. Robert by deed 
dated April 8, 1767, gave to his son Joseph 110 acres "where 
I now live, all my farming tools, my pew in the Meeting 
House, reserving the privilege of a seat for me and my 
wife Sarah during our lives. I also reserve my corn mill." 
April 8, 1807, Joseph deeded the farm to his sons William 
and Silas, "including all my live stock of creatures, except 
four cows during my life and the use of two of them to 
my wife during her life if she survives me, reserving the 
privilege of seats in my pew in the Meeting House." The 
farm is still in possession of their descendants at a place 
called "Barber's Crossing." Near neighbors to the Barbers 



30 

were the Stowells, Cornelius being the first one of the 
family to settle there. Robert Barber sold to his son 
Matthew land which came to him by purchase from William 
Gray and John Kelso; a portion of it was laid out to 
Stephen Minot. Matthew sold to Cornelius Stowell land 
including "my fulling mill, clothier's shop, house," etc., 
situated on Mill Brook. Cornelius sold the same property 
to his son Thomas, who continued the business of weaving 
cloths. Joseph Barber sold to Thomas Stowell land border- 
ing on a channel cut from North Pond to convey water 
to the fulling mill. There was a bridge over the brook, 
probably in about the same position as the present one; 
it is spoken of as between Barber's and Sto well's. Samuel 
succeeded Thomas in the clothier's business and from him 
the property came into the possession of Frederick T. 
Stowell. It remained in the family one hundred years or 
more, when it was divided amongst several parties. In 
1825 Samuel Stowell sold land at the outlet of North Pond 
to the Blackstone Canal Company for the purpose of erecting 
a dam on its east side, with liberty to take gravel from 
his land. The pond was the storage feeder for the canal. 
South of and bordering on the Stowells was the farm 
of Jonathan Gleason, which embraced land on both sides 
of the road. This passed to his descendants, and that on 
the east side of the road, from them to George T. Rice 
and Horace Chenery, manufacturers of cloths. A pond had 
been created by the erection of a dam, giving them power 
for their factory. The Stowells and Barbers sold them 
flowage rights. A portion of this purchase by Mr. Rice 
was sold to Benjamin Goddard, 2d, and Lyman Bellows. 
Mr. Ichabod Washburn was associated with Mr. Goddard in 
a factory below that of Messrs. Rice and Chenery. Messrs. 
Pliny A. and John M. Daniels bought out Messrs. Rice 
and Chenery and carried on the business a few years, when 
they sold to Harrison Bliss. The factory was destroyed 
by fire and has not been rebuilt. A portion of Mr. Gleason's 



31 

farm lying on the west side of the road extending west 
to North Pond was purchased by Mr. Chenery, who erected 
thereon a house, in which he lived till his death, after which 
it passed into the hands of John and George W. Mann. 
The Chadick or Chaddick or Chadok or Chaddok or Chad- 
wick farm bordered that of Jonathan Gleason on the south, 
and, like that of the others north of it, was a part of Corne- 
lius Waldo's tract of seven hundred acres. The farmhouse 
stood on the site of a modern house erected a few years 
since by George A. Brigham, south of Chadwick square. 
The land extended westerly to Forest street and lay largely 
on the south side of the old Joblin road. John H. Brooks, 
Jr., purchased a part of this farm and carried on the black- 
smithing business in the old shop at Chadwick square. 
John M. Brigham and his brother Calvin and Francis P. 
Stowell bought another part of the estate, which is still 
owned by the descendants of the Brighams. 

The travelers turn into a lane leading to a house elevated 
above the road, from which a still wider prospect is obtained ; 
this house belongs to Walter Bigelow, the son of Deacon 
David, who is a son of Daniel, an early settler on Pakachoag 
Hill, in the south part of the town. David was born in 
1731 and his home was on the sixth Massachusetts turn- 
pike, already spoken of, where he and his son Silas kept 
a hotel for half a century. Preceding and during the 
Revolution he was active in promoting measures for the 
public safety and providing for the army, which caused 
him many cold rides through the wintry snows to meet 
with the committee in the centre of the town. It was 
his brother Colonel Timothy who raised a company of 
minutemen to answer the summons from Concord and 
Lexington. David had ten children, of whom Walter, the 
youngest but one, was born November 15, 1775, at the 
old homestead. He learned the carpenter's trade and 
followed it for several years. He married November 18, 
1799, Judith, a daughter of Deacon William Trowbridge, 



32 

who lived in that part of the town now called Trowbridge- 
ville. They began housekeeping on the west side of the 
Lancaster road on the site of the house built by William 
I. Brown, where Mrs. Ephraim Whitman now lives; this 
house he hired of his sister Mrs. Dolly Chadwick, the widow 
of Joseph, who owned a large farm lying on both sides 
of the road. In this house two of his children were born, 
Sarah and Andrew. April 23, 1806, he bought of his sister 
Dolly and Benjamin Heywood, administrators of the estate 
of Joseph Chadwick, two acres on the south side of the 
farm on the west side of the road, where he built a house, 
still standing, in which Professor E. H. Russell lived fourteen 
years, now owned by Edwin P. Curtis. Here a son, Walter, 
Jr., and daughter, who died early, were born. During his 
stay in this house he worked at his trade and superintended 
the care of his sister's farm. March 12, 1814, he bought 
of Jonathan Knight seventy-six acres on the east side of 
the road where we are now; this farm he leased on shares 
till 1819, but the arrangement not proving satisfactory, he 
carried it on himself thenceforward. February 1, 1816, he 
purchased of John Simonds seventy-six acres additional. 
In the summer of that year a daughter was born, Mary 
E., now Mrs. Davis of Staten Island, N. J., from whom 
many of these facts were obtained. In 1829 a brick house 
replaced the old wooden one and in 1832 the long barn 
was built. The erection of it caused many remarks, for 
Mr. Bigelow said that if it could not be raised without 
the use of rum it would never be. At that time raisings 
were festive occasions and often ended in drunken scenes. 
Several years prior to this Mr. Bigelow had taken a decided 
stand on the temperance question and would not allow 
liquor to be kept or used on his premises. All honor to 
Mr. Walter Bigelow, Senr. We may hear about the work 
of intemperance in that neighborhood later. The barn 
was raised without accident and a generous dinner for 
seventy persons provided. Mr. Bigelow died in May, 1857; 



33 

his son Walter, born August 22, 1811, spent his boyhood 
and early youth on the farm. He gradually assumed con- 
trol of it and took affectionate care of his parents in their 
advanced age. In 1840 he married Mary K. Hyde of 
Newton, by whom he had five children, one of whom, 
Harriet A., married Edwin P. Curtis, who retains the farm; 
and another, Sarah H., married Charles H. Davis, M.D., 
son of John and Harriet (Gates), who served in the War 
of the Rebellion as an army surgeon; at its close he followed 
his profession in Worcester till his death September 16, 
1897. Mr. Bigelow died February 17, 1870. 

Returning to the road, after thanking Mr. Bigelow for 
his kindness, the travelers descend the south end of the 
elevated plain and soon arrive at John Fisk's or Fisk's 
Corner, where now stands a handsome brick house shaded 
by beautiful drooping elms and surrounded by every com- 
fort. The passer-by can hardly resist the temptation to 
covet such an attractive place. It is on the corner of 
Burncoat and Millbrook streets, and has been known as 
the Barnard farm for many years. To-day if any one 
should ask for the location of Fisk's Corner, no satisfactory 
reply could be obtained. Let us delay a short time over 
the history of tins spot. Soon after the third settlement 
of the town a large part of the territory surrounding this 
corner came into the possession of Henry Lee from Ephraim 
Curtis, John Stearns and John Hubbard. Lee sold to 
John Fisk of Watertown two hundred acres and a pew in 
the meeting house March 20, 1743. Sarah Fisk, the sister 
of John, joint owner with him, sold one-half of this to 
her nephews James and Samuel, and the other half to John 
Gleason; and he sold the same, Feb. 12, 1822, to Lewis 
Barnard, son of the John whose farm was described early 
in this narrative. Lewis deeded one-half of his farm to 
his son Captain John, and at his death he devised the 
remainder to him. Captain John by his will filed in 1873, 

gave all his real estate to his son George A., the present 
3 



34 

owner. Captain John married in 1826 Sarah, the eldest 
child of Walter Bigelow, Senr. She was born December 
23, 1800, and died in April, 1900, nearly one hundred 
years old. 

A short distance north of this farm on the same side 
of the road on the northerly slope of the hill Isaac Gleason 
owned land in which was a mine, in the possession of said 
Gleason, Daniel McFarland and others, that was worked 
for silver. Had this mine been as productive as those of 
Mexico and Arizona the ratio of silver to gold might have 
antedated the present ratio. Like many other ventures 
the mine proved worthless. March 5, 1786, Isaac Gleason 
sold to Jonathan Gleason the land, but reserved as not 
alienated or sold so much of said mine and other privileges 
as belonged to him and the other owners. This was twenty 
and more years after the mine was opened. It was on 
the spot where Walton L. Wood made bricks not many 
years ago. 

A few rods further on our way Clark's tavern is reached, 
where our traveler from Shrewsbury was left. Many 
persons can recall the small one-story brick house on the 
west side of Adams square, a short distance north of the 
present Congregational Meeting House. Formerly this was 
a store; beside it was the tavern and attached to that 
was a bowling alley. Liquor flowed freely over the bar 
and the seeds of intemperance were sown in many families, 
to be handed down from father to son. It can hardly be 
believed that this beautiful place, adorned with a noble 
schoolhouse, expensive dwellings, neat churches, all in- 
dicative of prosperity and refinement, could have been 
notoriously the worst place in the town. It was known 
as Sodom and Jug Corner. Will the time ever come when 
we shall see eye to eye and banish this great curse of intem- 
perance from our midst! No wonder that Walter Bigelow, 
Senior, battled for temperance; again we say all honor 
to him and to those like him, who, in a time of nearly 



35 

universal indulgence in the use of intoxicating liquors, 
placed themselves squarely against it! Before leaving this 
spot, let it be said that the recent foisting of a local name 
on this square in the place of one transcendently glorious 
in our country's history, reveals either a great ignorance 
of the history of this spot, or a lamentable lack of civic 
pride. 

On the occasion of the second visit of the Marquis de 
Lafayette to the United States, in his journey from Boston 
he spent the night of September 3, 1824, at the residence 
of Sampson Vreeland Stoddard Wilder in Bolton, he having 
become acquainted with Mr. Wilder during his residence 
in France. On his way from Bolton the next day Lafayette 
was met at this tavern by the committee of Worcester to 
escort him to the town. 

There is an old oak standing in the lot on the east side 
of the road, whose top is deformed. It is said that at 
the election of John Adams to the Presidency the event 
was celebrated by placing a tar barrel in the upper part 
of the tree and setting fire to it. 

The ancient Connecticut Road, over which we passed 
in the first part of this article, was left at this junction of 
the two ways. On account of the wide morass the road 
wound around its northern edge. The town in 1808 laid 
out the road from the old Chadwick house across the morass 
to meet the old road at the eastern end of the present 
Melrose street. Some conjecture that from this place it 
followed nearly the course of the present Paine street, 
crossed Bimelech Brook at Garden street, thence to Joe 
Bill road and so on by a circuitous southerly route to New 
Worcester. Others suggest that it coincided with Millbrook 
street over the "foarding" place as described in one deed, 
past Barber's, northerly and westerly of the swamp and 
westerly of New Worcester. Probably the precise location 
will never be determined. 

March, 1748-9, there was laid out a "Town way three 



36 

rods wide commonly known and called ye new Road, land 
being left by ye Proprietors for ye same begining at ye 
Corner of Lieut John Fisks fence by his Sider mill So by 
said Fisks fence until it Extends to Danson's Brook and 
ouer s d Brook in ye old foardway by land of John Fisk 
Jun r till it Extends to ye Road Leading to Robert Barbers 
then turning Southerly by Barbers Road till it Extends 
over a Small Slough then turning westerly through the 
land of Cornelius Waldo Esq 1 " till it Extends to ye land 
belonging to ye heirs of major Daniel Henchman Deceast 
till it Extends to land of Joseph Heath Esq through said 
Heaths by the Dwelling house where Jasper Moore now 
Dwells untill it Extends to ye Lane Leading to the Dwelling 
house of Stephen Sawing." This is the present Millbrook 
street to its intersection with West Boylston street, which 
it may have followed to Chadwick square; thence westerly 
by a way that has disappeared to the west side of Hancock 
Hill. Stephen Sawing appears to have lived on land which 
afterwards was included in the Chamberlain farm. 

Proceeding towards the town a large house is seen on 
the left, opposite Mr. Bigelow's first heme. It belongs to 
the extensive farm of Joseph Chadwick already noticed. 
Mr. Chadwick and his widow Dolly kept a tavern here 
many years. This farm came from John Gray, and at the 
time of Joseph's death it comprised one hundred and forty 
acres, lying on both sides of the road. Through several 
transfers it came into the possession of George W. Brooks, 
who sold it to Alfred D. Foster and he deeded it to Josiah 
Brittan June 27, 1833. Several years since the house was 
moved a few rods to the northeast of its original location 
and is still owned and occupied by Mr. Brittan's descendants. 
A large part of the farm has been covered with fine houses, 
built on well shaded streets, and the region has become 
one of the most attractive sections of the town. Between 
this farmhouse and Green lane on the east side of the road 
there were no houses. In the valley where are now hun- 



37 

dreds of buildings, there was an extensive brickyard, worked 
for many years by Josiah Brittan and afterwards by George 
Hobbs. Much of the building material of the town came 
out of this valley. On the opposite side of the road, a 
short distance south of the Walter Bigelow, Senr., house, 
there stood, and still stands, an old brick house on the 
Paine estate, which passed into the possession of Howard 
Holden, later, who raised and otherwise improved it. This 
and the Bigelow house were the only houses on that side 
of the road between the Clark tavern and the Timothy 
Paine house. In the valley west of the road and east of 
Mill Brook there was the house of John Kelso; to allow 
him to pass out from his land, the town laid out a road 
through Timothy Paine's to the county road, February 25, 
1765, a part of the way being a bridle path; this was dis- 
continued and the entire length made a bridle path March 
7, 1785. 

Green lane was laid out in 1763 through land of John 
Ball, to accommodate John Green. John Ball bought of 
John Chandler 127 acres on both sides of the road April 
24, 1746. John Chandler had it from Thomas Dick, who 
bought of John Oulton in 1734. John Ball died in 1756, 
leaving his farm to his widow Lydia, who sold to Timothy 
Paine in 1759. There is pointed out to the travelers the 
site of the Scotch Presbyterian Meeting House, the story 
of which has been told. The Ball farm was bounded on 
the south by the extensive tract granted to Daniel Hench- 
man in 1716 and 1718. It embraced 254 acres and extended 
from near Perkins street on the north to Arch street on 
the south and from Mill Brook on the west to Millstone 
Hill on the east, including Bladder Pond. This was subse- 
quently divided, in 1763, the most southerly part going 
to Rev. Isaac Burr, the most northerly to James Varney 
and his son and Mary Sigourne" and the remainder to John 
Hancock. James Varney sold his part to Timothy Paine 
and Mary Sigourne's part went to John Knowcr. On the 



38 

latter lot was a very old and poor house, that was occupied 
many years by Ephraim Wesson. The property was finally 
sold for taxes by the city and bought by James H. Wall 
and Edward H. Hemenway, who sold it to Charles M. Miles. 
This lot was about 115 feet wide and extended eastward 
to Millstone Hill, comprising six acres and ninety-five rods. 
This John Knower was not an immediate descendant of 
the ancient navigator, though one deed might lead to 
that inference; his name was spelled Knower. 

Opposite to this place was the Paine mansion situated 
on the southern edge of the very large Paine estate. This 
is so well known from repeated descriptions that I will 
not detract from what has been written alreadj r , through 
any ignorance of mine. Latterly it has been known as 
"The Oaks." At the time of Timothy Paine's death the 
home estate comprised two hundred and thirty acres. 

A brick house on the south corner of Paine street was 
occupied at one time by Rev. John S. C. Abbott, pastor 
of the Calvinist Church, one of a family of noted writers, 
he being the author of many histories. After he left, 
Draper Ruggles, at the head of the well known establish- 
ment of Ruggles, Nourse and Mason, manufactures of 
agricultural implements at Court Mills, occupied the house. 
Subsequently Joseph F. Loring, a stove dealer on Main 
street dwelt there. 

From the old Knower house to the Geer place there 
were no houses and no streets had been opened eastward. 
All to the east of the road was open land. The Lincoln 
farm barn stood about where Westminster street runs 
between Harrington avenue and Catharine street. The well 
connected with the barn contained excellent water, and 
was within six feet of the north line of the lot once owned 
by me. When Draper Ruggles built on Catharine street 
he bought the right to carry water to his house from this 
well. Subsequently the lot containing this well was sold 
and the purchaser built a barn and located the horse stall 



39 

over the well. Trouble speedily arose at Mr. Ruggles' 
house and an energetic remonstrance was made. The 
matter was settled satisfactorily by the advice of a lawyer. 

John Hancock sold 152 acres, his portion of the Hench- 
man grant, to Levi Lincoln April 26, 1782, who, at his 
death May 29, 1868, devised the estate to his son William. 
John W. Lincoln, assignee of William, sold a part of the 
property to Edward Lamb of Boston, who sold the portion 
on the west side of the road to David S. Messinger, including 
the farmhouse, which Mr. Messinger moved to the corner 
of Grove and Lexington streets, where it remains; he sold 
the larger part of his purchase to William A. W'heeler 
May 29, 1848, who erected thereon the house which he 
occupied till 1867, when he deeded it to the wife of Philip 
L. Moen. In the rear of the farmhouse there was a small 
but beautiful body of water, shaded by willows and other 
trees, called Lincoln's Pond. It became a frequent resort 
for picnics. The main entrance to it was through a double 
row of pines from Lincoln street along the north line of 
the estate of Edwin Conant. This row of trees met the fate 
of most trees a few years since. The pond was filled up 
and has become a part of the freight yard of the 
Worcester and Nashua Railroad Company. Three scrawny 
willows are sole survivors of many that hung over the quiet 
waters, on whose surface happy children were rowed a 
long time ago. Mr. Lamb sold that portion of his purchase 
on the east side of the road to Ebenezer Harrington, who, 
with his brother Charles A., kept a drug and paint store 
on Main street immediately south of the Calvinistic Meeting 
House. Over their store door was a sign, "The Good 
Samaritan," which depicted a man in the act of pouring 
oil and wine into the wounds of another who had fallen 
into the hands of robbers. Mr. Harrington opened streets 
and cut up his purchase into lots; the vacant hillside is 
now adorned with many dwellings. 

William Lincoln sold, on the east side of the road, to 



40 

Benjamin F. Thomas, a distinguished lawyer and judge, 
the place now owned by the heirs of Lewis Barnard, son of 
the Captain Lewis heretofore mentioned; to John Davis, 
prominent in the affairs of the state and nation as Represen- 
tative in Congress, Governor and United States Senator — the 
house in which he was born was standing in Northborough 
a few years since; to Rev. Alonzo Hill, the colleague 
and successor of Rev. Aaron Bancroft; to Joseph G. Ken- 
dall, Clerk of the Courts for many years. Mr. Kendall 
opened Kendall street; he sold a part of his land to Benjamin 
F. Thomas, who conveyed it to William R. Hooper and 
William C. Thompson; they sold to Archibald M. Morrison, 
an Episcopal rector, who deeded it to Philip L. Moen, and 
he sold to William A. Wheeler. A short distance further 
on our way we find the Geer place, that came down from 
John Chandler, through several conveyances. One of the 
owners was Deacon Samuel Bridge, a wig, or peruke maker, 
as he is described in one deed. In front of this house 
there were three very large and shapely elms that were 
cut down in 1903. Adjoining the Geer place was that 
of Artemas Ward, for a long time Register of Deeds; a 
daughter, Sarah, taught school and afterwards became the 
wife of William M. Bickford. Mr. Ward's sons sold the 
property to David S. Messinger, who built the wooden 
block on its site. Polly Whitney owned the next place; 
it was a part of the Chandler property which he had from 
Rev. Isaac Burr in the division of the Henchman grant. 
Polly was a weaver of carpets and rugs on a roughly built 
loom in one of her rooms. In my early days it was a treat 
to watch- the operation of the machine. Her parents were 
Ebenezer and Martha, who lived in a low one-story house 
on the west side of Main street at the beginning of the 
descent into New Worcester. The house was pulled down 
a few years since to make way for a more modern one. 
Riding past there with my father he told me of a negro 
who lived in the house who said that he would be willing 



41 

to be flayed alive if thereby he could obtain the rights 
and privileges of a white man. The Whitney property on 
Lincoln street passed to the Worcester Gas Light Company 
and thence to Charles H. Morgan. Next south was the 
Samuel Chandler property, a part of the Henchman grant. 
The mansion house now stands at the corner of Belmont 
street. As far back as I can remember it was put to bad 
uses; it has been a liquor hole and it seems in a fair way 
to continue so. The house stood north of its present 
location, about where the office of the Gas Light Company 
was, and it faced the south, at an angle with the road. 
In 1782 and for a few years thereafter Daniel Waldo, Senr., 
occupied this house, and afterwards Levi Lincoln, Jr. 
There was a large elm in front of it. In the rear was a 
long barn; the place was known as Stearns tavern and 
it bore a bad reputation. One night the cry of Fire! was 
heard. In common with boys at that time I was soon 
on the spot and helping at the brakes of the fire engine. 
The barn was totally destroyed, with the contents, includ- 
ing several horses and cows. Many persons wished the house 
had been burned instead of the barn and the dumb beasts. 
After Mr. Chandler's death in 1813 or '14, twenty-five acres 
of the estate were sold to Carey and William H. Howard; 
this extended easterly and included what was afterward 
the Samuel Davis property, now owned by the Memorial 
Hospital. This Howard farm, as it was called, passed 
through several hands, a portion of it being bought by the 
Gas Light Company. South of this estate and a part of 
the Chandler property thirty-one and one-fourth acres were 
sold to Francis Blake, and from him it descended through 
William Eaton, Nathan Heard and John F. Clarke to 
Edward Earle, who sold a large part to various persons. 
Some ruins on the south side of the square called forth 
an inquiry from the travelers, who were told that a stone 
jail was built there in 1788, and it was then supposed that 
it would last for two or three centuries. But in less than 



42 

fifty years its demolition took place, a better one having 
been built. In the stone jail persons were confined who 
could not or would not pay their debts; they were 
allowed to transact business during the day and return 
to the jail at night, their families supplying them with 
food and clothing. 

Opposite the jail stood the building of the American 
Antiquarian Society, which was organized in 1812. Isaiah 
Thomas erected the house in 1820 and gave the Society 
the use of it. 

On the west side of the road that we have been over 
there were no streets running west from it south of Adams 
square. Below the Lincoln farmhouse William Lincoln 
sold a- lot to Isaac Goodwin, who sold to Edwin Conant. 
Mr. Goodwin had a daughter Jane, who married Loring 
H. Austen and was distinguished as an authoress. Mr. 
Conant was a lawyer, the son of Jacob and Relief (Burpee) 
of Sterling; he was born August 20, 1810, and died March 
2, 1891; he married first Maria E. Estabrook, daughter of 
Joseph and Ruth (Greenwood) of Royalston; he married 
second Elizabeth Sumner Wheeler, daughter of Joseph and 
Lucy (Sumner) of Dixfield, Me.; he was the ninth gen- 
eration in descent from Roger of England. Mr. Conant 
changed his residence to the corner of Harvard and State 
streets in 1872; this property he gave to the Natural 
History Society, and that on Lincoln street to the inhabi- 
tants of Sterling, at his death. Next south of Mr. Conant's 
came additional land of Isaac Goodwin, which Oliver H. 
Blood, a dentist, occupied for a few years, and afterward 
George G. Burbank, a druggist, owned it; William H. 
Sawyer is its present possessor. An open space, now the 
yard of the railroad company, was formerly the mill pond 
of Captain John Wing, and afterwards of Cornelius Waldo, 
who continued the use of the mill. South of the pond 
was the house of Timothy Keith, a watchmaker and jeweler, 
whose store was on the east side of Main street a little 



43 

south of School street. This property now belongs to the 
railroad company. Then come the two old brick blocks, 
which were designated as the Drury estate; the northern 
one has been raised and modernized and is owned by Julius 
E. Bacon; the other was owned by Eri Saunders for thirty 
years and has passed into the possession of Frederick W. 
Southwick. In the basement of the north end of this 
block Miss Sarah Ward kept an infant school nearly seventy 
years ago. Standing in the sidewalk near by is a mile- 
stone, one of the only two remaining in Worcester of those 
which marked the distances on the great post road. On 
it is the following inscription: 

44 

Miles From 

Boston 50 to 

Springfield 

The other one stood near Austin street and is among 
this Society's antiquities; it bears this direction: 

48 

Mil From 

Boston. 

An old wooden building next appears and is one of the 
few in the town that have any interest attached to them. 
This property was bought by Timothy Paine in 1751, out 
of the purchase made by John Chandler through Rev. 
Isaac Burr from the grant to Daniel Henchman. It is said 
that, when John Adams was teaching school in Worcester 
during the years 1755-58, he called at this house frequently. 
Adjoining was the " Hancock Arms," a resort of the patriots 
during Revolutionary times. Both of these properties 
belong to the heirs of Harrison Bliss, who purchased the 
"Arms" of William M. Bickford, a manufacturer. 

Mill Brook, or Bimelech, as it was sometimes called, 
ran on southward from this point through the great meadow, 
which extended nearly to Front street. The road crossed 
the brook by a ford. After a time a wooden bridge was 



44 

thrown over the stream, that served its purpose till it became 
dangerous, when an arch of stone was built in 1810. A 
sustaining wall at the upper end of the arch supported 
the roadway, which was raised several feet. On this wall 
was an iron railing, and near each end of it were large 
ash trees in the edge of the road. North of the wall the 
brook widened into a basin, walled on the east and west 
sides, extending to the dam, a small part of which remained 
till the entire stream was arched over; on this small island, 
as it was called, a large tree and some bushes were growing. 
A driveway at each end of the wall led down into the water; 
in warm weather a great many teams were driven through 
the stream, which was two feet deep and thirty or forty 
feet wide; the boys, peering through the railing, watched 
the wading horses with delight. One day a number of 
elephants in the train of a circus were driven into the 
basin by their keepers; it was a pleasing sight to witness 
the evident enjoyment of the animals as they spouted the 
water over their hugh bodies. Occasionally persons were 
baptised in this basin; the ceremony always drew a crowd 
of the curious to the place. Madam Salisbury's grounds 
on the east side, bordering on the water, were supported 
by a strong and high wall, which was surmounted by a 
fence just about in the position of the present fence. The 
stable was in the rear of the house; the same building is 
used as a tin shop. The entrance to her grounds was on 
the west side; the street has been widened so as to include 
the driveway. The same long, low woodshed on that side 
of the house still remaining, was on the line of the street. 
Two butternut trees stood in the sidewalk close to the 
shed. Mrs. Salisbury had a coach and a pair of black 
horses, which I well remember often to have seen driven 
out of the yard to the front gate. To prevent the horses, 
which were headed towards the basin, from plunging into 
it, a single-rail fence was built. 

John Wing's heirs sold to Cornelius Waldo a large tract 



45 

of land on both sides of Mill Brook. At Mr. Waldo's 
death Joseph "Waldo, one of his heirs, sold one hundred 
and fifty acres to John Hancock, April 22, 1771; this was 
on the west side of the brook. Six months later John 
Hancock sold the same to Stephen Salisbury the elder. 
Mr. Salisbury and his brother Samuel also bought one 
hundred and thirty acres on Burnt Coat Plain of Ezekiel 
How. This they sold to Daniel Heywood April 2, 1792. 
Mr. Salisbury erected his house about 1770 and kept a 
store in the eastern part of it. East of the basin that 
has been described, in front of the present railroad station, 
on a knoll, there was a long, low wooden building in which 
Mr. Salisbury began keeping store; later the place was 
used for a paint shop. It is possible that Daniel Waldo 
and son occupied this building subsequently for their 
store. 

On the south side of the square was located Timothy 
Bigelow's blacksmith shop, iron works and trip-hammer; 
he or his father-in-law, Samuel Andrews, built a dam across 
the brook, thereby forming a pond that extended back to 
the south end of the arch, which went under and across 
the square. Afterwards this property, once a part of the 
Ministerial land, was purchased by Stephen Salisbury, 2d, 
in 1S24, who erected the ''Court Mills," in which agricul- 
tural implements were manufactured for many years. A 
part of this property came to Mr. Bigelow through his 
wife Anna, daughter of Samuel Andrews. Abraham Lincoln 
succeeded to the iron business. Timothy Bigelow dug 
a canal to convey away the water from his null, through 
land south of his; the right to this was confirmed to Abra- 
ham Lincoln in 1791 by Mary Lynde, the widow of Joseph; 
one consideration of the agreement between Mary and 
Abraham was that she might take water from his flume 
to her fountain through an inch pipe. 

The estates immediately south of Timothy Bigelow's 
are the Lyndes', Joseph and Thomas, from whom they 



46 

descended to Judge Edward Bangs by marriage, and thence 
through Elizabeth Grosvenor, widow of Rev. Ebenezer, 
Isaiah Thomas, Isaac Davis and William Pratt to David 
S. Messinger, who erected the present block thereon; the 
estates of Rev. Joseph Wheeler and Nathan Patch, all of 
which have been described in another article. In the con- 
veyance of three and one-half acres from Daniel Heywood 
to Nathan Patch the land is described as opposite Andrew 
Duncan's store, which was on the homestead of Judge 
William Jennison. Andrew Duncan married Sarah Lynde, 
the daughter of Joseph. 

Our journey with the travelers ends here, we bid them 
goodbye and they pursue their way through the town. We 
betake ourselves northward to the Holden line, on the 
road that is described as leading to Holden by Elisha 
Smith's. About one mile beyond the line the road crosses 
the sixth Massachusetts turnpike, nearly four miles from 
the place where we first met it. It was a circuitous and 
hilly way to reach Holden, and in 1825 a new road was 
opened from Thaxter's to Rudman's Mills, which crossed 
the sixth Massachusetts turnpike still further west, a little 
east of Chafrm's, so called. This became the stage route 
to Holden, Rutland, Barre, Princeton, etc. Many a time 
have I seen the stages drawn by four horses whirl down 
the hill past my grandfather's on their way to town, leav- 
ing a great cloud of dust behind them. After staging 
ceased and the new road to Holden was built in 1851 this 
road was almost entirely disused for many years, except 
by pleasure seekers, who found it a delightful drive through 
the woods. Within a year an electric road has been built 
and travel that way is greater than ever. The old road 
of which we first spoke, has been rising continuously from 
the level of the waters of North Pond, and it reaches its 
highest altitude a short distance beyond the Holden line. 
This hill commands an extensive sweep of country in all 
directions. It is higher than Burnt Coat Plain, and the 



47 

view is similar to the one already described from that 
place, though seen at a different angle. Mount Wachusett 
seems nearer; the western side of Mount Ararat is presented. 
Asnebumskit is more prominent. The entire valley south- 
ward, embracing North Pond, is terminated by the smaller 
hills immediately encircling the town of Worcester. Farm- 
houses dot the hills and hill sides wherever the eye turns. 

Before 1725 James Knap, who had land granted to him 
around the north end of North Pond, sold 250 acres to 
Richard Temple, who built the house now owned by Alfred 
S. Lowell and gave it to his son Joseph, with 65 acres of 
land. This passed through many transfers to Joseph 
Daniels in 1804, and was known as the Daniels' farm; 
when he purchased, the number of acres had increased to 
94^. He added to the amount of his land so that his widow 
sold 150 acres in 1839 to Ezekiel and Charles Newton, and 
thenceforward for thirty years it was called the Newton 
farm. Mr. Ezekiel Newton died a few years since at an 
advanced age. Mr. Lowell became the owner in 1887 and 
calls it "The Poplars." 

Richard Temple built another house, a counterpart of 
the first, and gave it, with 60 acres, to his son William; 
it is now owned by the widow of James S. Libby. This 
farm passed by many transfers to John Child, who sold 
165 acres and a pew in the meeting house to Benjamin 
Thaxter of Abington, November 27, 1792. Benjamin, my 
grandfather, was the sixth in descent from Thomas of 
Hingham, England. He was born in Hingham, Mass., 
March 21, 1758, and married January 10, 1783, Sarah, 
daughter of Joshua and Hannah (Reed) Howe of Abington. 
When asked by one of his relatives why he went to Worcester 
he laughingly replied, "To escape taxes and orthodoxy." 
I have never heard that he escaped either. He was a 
successful farmer, a good man, beloved and respected. He 
was treasurer of the Second Parish in Worcester. After 
his death, which occurred, April 21, 1821, a committee of 



48 

the Parish, consisting of Judge Bangs, William Jennison 
and William Eaton, at a meeting held by adjournment 
August 13, 1821, reported, •" that it appears that there is 
a balance of $12.61 due to the estate of said Thaxter, and 
they recommend that said sum together with the sum of 
five dollars for services as such Treasurer for the year 1820 
be allowed," which report was accepted. Mr. Thaxter 
joined to his business of farming that of surveying. Several 
plots of farms made by him are on file in the Registry of 
Deeds. A daughter Sarah, who married a son of Rev. 
Joseph Avery of Holden, lived to the age of eighty-seven. 
A son, Benjamin, a successful merchant in Boston, died 
September 6, 1886, at the age of ninety-eight. When the 
Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad was built, he said 
that at the time he left home at the age of twenty-one, he 
should have thought of a road to the moon as soon as one 
through his father's farm. Now an electric road passes on the 
opposite side of the house. Who will deny that a hundred 
years hence tourists will not be conveyed by a subway 
under the farm, or by air ships over it to Mount Wachusett? 
Mr. Thaxter's farm took in the west side of Mount Ararat 
and at one time was considered to be one of the best farms 
in Worcester. It sloped to the south and had a warm 
and rich soil. It remained in the family nearly fifty years. 
In 1837 valuable water rights were purchased from the 
Newton Farm and from that time water flowed constantly 
to supply the house and barn. A great many incidents 
connected with this farm are among the recollections of 
my youthful days. My mother drove to the farm one 
summer day in company with a friend, taking me, a mere 
babe, also. On the return when going down a slight de- 
scent, within sight of the house, the horse fell and pitched 
me out of my mother's arms astride of his back. Mr. 
Osgood Bradley, happening along at that moment, soon put 
things to rights and we went on our way. That was my 
first lesson in horseback riding. 



49 

On the opposite side of the road was the farm of Elisha 
Smith, who had purchased land from James Knap, Robert 
Peibles, William Temple and others. It was retained by 
Mr. Smith and his descendants for about seventy years, 
when a portion of it came into the possession of Walter 
H. Davis, in whose family it was held for forty years; 
since then many persons have become its owners. 

On the eastern slope of the hills at the west lay the farm 
of Benjamin Whitney. This was a part of the original 
grant to Palmer Goulding, who sold to William Jennison 
in 1732; ten years later he sold one-half of ten acre rights 
to Elicksandie McConkey, from whom it soon passed to 
Benjamin Whitney, in whose family it remained more than 
eighty years, thence it went to Ezra Goddard, whose son 
Josiah lives in the house built nearly one hundred and 
seventy-five years ago. 

In the valley on the west side of the road was the little 
red schoolhouse of the neighborhood, in which the young 
people received all the schooling they ever had. I remember 
it distinctly and never pass the spot without thinking of 
it. 

Not far beyond was the farm of Benjamin Reed, of 200 
acres, which he bought of Lemuel Saunders; in 1809 he 
deeded 100 acres each to his sons Samuel T. and Benjamin; 
the former lived at the foot of the hill, the latter at the top. 
Samuel T. sold his farm to Nathan Rogers, whose heirs 
sold to Granger Peirce. Benjamin sold his farm to Ebe- 
nezer Jewett in 1845 and it has remained in the family up 
to this time. Mr. Reed, Senr., in 1799, bought of Benjamin 
Whitney springs on the hill and the right to convey the 
water therefrom to his house. 

Benjamin Reed was descended from John of Dorchester, 
who was freeman in 1640; he removed to Braintree about 
that time. His son Samuel went to Mendon and in 1668 
married Hopestile Holbrook. His son Deacon Ebenezer 
married, February 23, 1764, Mary, daughter of Ebenezer 
4 



50 

and Abigail (Whiting) Chapin. Ebenezer moved from 
Milford to Worcester in 1796. • 

Southerly of the Reed farm was that of John Nelson, 
on the hill west of the road. It belonged to Richard Barnes 
in 1734 and from him it passed down to John Walker, and 
for some time it bore the name of the "Walker" farm. 
John became a refugee and his farm was sold, and in 1799 
100 acres were deeded to John Nelson of Hopkinton. John 
sold subsequently to his daughters Peedy and Betsey, who 
sold a part to Jonathan; after that it was divided and 
sold to various parties. A son of John was Rev. Jonathan, 
the distinguished pastor at Leicester for more than fifty 
years, and President of the Board of Trustees of Leicester 
Academy. In one deed connected with the transfers of 
this farm a right to pass to the goat pasture is reserved. 
Also a bridle way was laid out from the south end of the 
place to Salisbury street, coming out nearly opposite the 
Chamberlain farmhouse. 

North Pond originally comprised about 30 acres; now 
it covers seven or eight times as much. The land which 
is now flowed by its waters was meadow. Much of it 
was embraced in the large tract of Cornelius Waldo. A 
part of the hill at the west of the pond was owned by James 
and Samuel Fisk. Mr. Waldo sold in 1747, 470 acres, a part 
of my great farm of 700 acres, to John Brooke of London, 
England. Mr. Brooke's heirs sold to various persons, the 
Chadicks, Samuel Brooks and others. Much later a way, 
called the "Joblin" road, existed between the road to 
Barber's and that to Holden by Robert Smith's; this was 
discontinued in 1834, when the present road across the 
south end of the pond was laid out. On the west side of 
the Holden road near the north end of Forest street, Thomas 
Mills bought land of Daniel Chaclwick; this remained in 
the Mills family till recently, when it was bought by Frank 
L. Allen. The Mills place was bounded on the southwest 
by the large Henchman grant of 279 acres, that extended 



51 

south of Salisbury street and embraced the whole of Han- 
cock Hill. The northern part of this grant descended to 
John Hancock, the southern to James Varney. The heirs 
of John Hancock sold 144 acres and 120 rods to Nathan 
Patch, February 4, 1802. Mr. Patch's executors sold to 
several persons; some of it was bought by my grandfather 
Theophilus Wheeler, who also bought other land adjacent, 
that constitutes the farm owned by Edwin W. Wheeler. 
This brings us nearly to the junction of Salisbury and 
Forest streets. Before proceeding further towards the town 
let us go to the northern end of Salisbury street near Ranks 
lane or Moreland street. Isaac Gardner, of whom there is 
no record here, sold in 1767, 177 acres to John Heath. 
60 acres of this he sold to Thomas Nichols, who purchased 
other land of the heirs of Joseph Wiley. This property 
was on both sides of the road, and is the farm on which 
William I. Allen now lives. A large elm by the roadside 
near the house enhances the beauty of the surroundings. 
To the west of this place on the high hill James Butler 
received a grant of land in 1721. From this he sold in 
April, 1737, to Joseph Wiley 105| acres. John Heath sold 
to Mr. Wiley 60 acres. The heirs of Mr. Wiley deeded the 
farm to various persons until, in 1788, nearly 100 acres 
were sold to Christopher Ranks, who came from Charles- 
town, where he was born, to Worcester in 1775; he married 
three times and had five children, one of whom, John, was 
the executor of his estate. Christopher died in 1815; he 
had a brother John. The estate passed through several 
owners to William T. Merrifield, and is now owned by 
Walter A. Brigham, who has erected a spacious house on 
a spot from which an extensive view towards the east is 
obtained, including a portion of the city. The old Ranks 
house, a one-story structure, has been torn down recently. 
The next farm on the south and adjoining was that of 
Andrew McFarland. Peter Goulding had 125 acres set off 
to him, which he sold to William Jennison, who sold the 



52 

east half of it January 4, 1729, to Andrew McFarling, who 
deeded it in 1743 to his son William; he bought additional 
land of Daniel Gookin's heirs, Joseph Wiley and others; 
in 1787 he gave his son William, Jr., one-half his farm and 
at his death in 1805 he left to William, Jr., one-half of 
what he then owned. When he, William, Jr., died in 1839 
he gave all his lands, 125 acres, to his daughter Sarah, 
the wife of Cyrus Gale of Northborough, who sold 80 acres 
of it to George T. Foster, the present owner. In the easterly 
side of the road a short distance north of Mr. Foster's house 
there is growing a Tupelo tree, the only one of two in the 
town, the other being on Chestnut street in the city. Near 
this tree in a corner of the pasture stood a schoolhouse 
in which Oliver B. Green, a wealthy citizen of Chicago, 
and a brother of Martin of this town, taught one winter. 
Miss Mary J. Mack, a teacher in one of the public schools, 
also taught there. The road originally went west of the 
present location, close to the house, and entered the road 
now used further south, possibly just north of Flagg street. 
Next to the McFarland farm came that of Thaddeus Cham- 
berlain, at the corner of Flagg street, of late years owned 
by Phylander and Sylvanus Sears; this came down by 
several conveyances from John Heath and Isaac Gardner. 
A portion of the farm on the easterly side of the road con- 
stituted the western side of the Henchman grant, which 
extended eastward nearly to Forest street. A short distance 
south of the farm buildings a stream of water, Beaver 
Brook, crosses the road; tradition says that a grist mill 
was erected on this stream on the right of the road, the 
pond being on the left or upper side. The farm of Deacon 
Jacob Chamberlain was closely joined to that of Thaddeus. 
Deacon Nathaniel Moore had a grant of land in the valley, 
which embraced a portion of the Marshall Flagg farm. 
In 1733 he gave 100 acres to his Deautiful daughter Grace, 
spinster. She married Richard Flagg, who deeded to 
Jacob Chamberlain 72 acres, 108 rods in 1742. Jacob died 



53 

in 1700; Ins sons John and Thaddeus were appointed 

administrators of his estate; they sold 120 acres to John 
in 1702, who in 1806 gave to his son Thomas one-half of 
"my home farm." John died intestate in 1813 and Benja- 
min Heywood, his administrator, set off a portion of the 
farm then remaining to Thomas, who died in 1855, leaving 
the farm of 75 acres. A part of this farm came from the 
Henchman grant. Deacon Jacob was born in Newton and 
came to Worcester in 1742; he was fourth in the line of 
descent from William of England, who was born in 1620 
and died at Billerica May 31, 1706. There were three 
heads of families in the line by the name of Jacob. The 
last Jacob was deacon of the First Parish as was his son 
John also. John was an extensive speculator in land, his 
purchases being made in various parts of the town. His 
son Thomas is remembered as crier of the courts for many 
years. The farm remains in the family, principally repre- 
sented by Robert H., the Sheriff of the County. 

A modern brick dwelling has taken the place of the 
ancient farmhouse, which is used for storage. When I was 
a boy studying surveying in the high school under that 
excellent teacher, William E. Starr, lately deceased at the 
age of ninety-one, Mr. Thomas Chamberlain invited Mr. 
Starr to test his scholars' knowledge in the measurement 
of his farm, and promised to give them a dinner. The 
farm was surveyed, accurately too, for no poor work ever 
passed from under our teacher's hands; not the least 
pleasant part of the holiday was the bountiful farmer's 
dinner, to which we did full justice. 

The southern portion of the Henchman grant, comprising 
135 acres, which James Varney inherited, was sold to 
Tarrant Putnam, who subsequently sold it to John Cham- 
berlain; he sold 60 acres to Moses N. Child in 1805 on 
both sides of the road west of Timothy Paine "where I 
now live." The executor of Mr. Child sold 85 acres to 
Nathaniel C. Moore in 1826. This is the place where Pliny 



54 

Moore and his sister live, in the house supposed to have 
been built in 17G3 by John Chamberlain. 

East of Mr. Moore's, on the south side of the road, was 
the farm of Benjamin N. Child. This was a part of the 
450 acres which Cornelius Waldo sold to John Brooke of 
London, England, from his great farm of 700 acres. The 
attorneys of the widow of John Brooke, his executrix, sold 
to Timothy Paine 66^ acres, a parallelogram in shape, at 
the southwest corner of the tract. Timothy's heirs sold 
28 acres 114 rods on the south side of the road to William 
Chamberlain, and from him it went, with additional pur- 
chases, to Warren Williams and others. 37 acres 110 rods 
were purchased Oct. 22, 1881, by J. Lewis Ellsworth, the 
present owner. 

Another part of the 66£ acres bought by Timothy Paine 
was devised to Hannah Bradish, his daughter, from whom 
it descended to Theophilus Wheeler and, with another 
small lot, constituted the "Cow Tavern" farm, now owned 
by the heirs of Francis P. Stowell. 

At the intersection of Forest street with Salisbury we 
have reached the western boundary of the great Walker 
farm, a part of the Cornelius Waldo tract. Samuel Waldo, 
executor of the estate of Jonathan Waldo, sold to Cornelius 
Waldo 700 acres September 11, 1735. This tract extended 
from the south end of the original North Pond to Joe 
Bill road, and from Mill Brook on the east to Forest street 
and a little beyond. As has been stated 450 acres were 
sold to John Brooke, 150 acres to Stephen Salisbury; the 
balance, with enough purchased later to make up 200 acres, 
was sold to William Walker May 5, 1745; this embraced 
the territory from West street on the east to Forest street 
on the west. At his death in 1760 he gave to his wife 
Mary the house which he built and in which he lived, 
together with 55 acres of land. The rest of his farm was 
divided amongst his children; a daughter Isabella married 
James Quigley, and received 23£ acres on both sides of 



55 

the Quigley road, or later Pratt street, now Park avenue. 
Another daughter, Nancy, married Joseph Brooks, and 18f 
acres south of the road and east of her mother's portion 
were given to her. Still another daughter Mary married 
Robert Oliver and received 18f acres, lying east of her 
sister Nancy's lot. William, prior to his death, sold to 
Timothy Paine 21f acres from the southeast corner of his 
farm, which descended to Gov. John Davis and from him 
to Harrison Bliss. John Chamberlain purchased of the 
heirs 100 acres, which afterwards were sold to Rev. Aaron 
Bancroft, who sold to Nymphas Pratt, who conveyed it 
to John and Jotham B. Pratt. From that time the farm 
has been greatly divided, and in place of corn and potato 
fields, mowing and pasture lands, there are now velvety 
lawns, parterres of flowering shrubs and handsome resi- 
dences. Those portions of Mr. Walker's farm which were 
given to his children finally were purchased by Mr. Salisbury, 
second. Latterly the present representative of the Salisbury 
family has come into possession of a part of the Bancroft 
farm, including Bancroft Hill. The Walker, or Bancroft 
house, as usually designated, in which George Bancroft 
the historian was born, ceased to command the respect 
due it, and was recently destroyed. When Mr. Walker 
owned this farm Salisbury's Pond was not in existence; 
the land now covered by its waters was a meadow through 
which Mill Brook flowed; the pond was created in 1834. 
Salisbury street was one of the early roads of the town; 
it was altered in June, 1777, and again in June, 1793, when 
it was described as the road from Holden by Reuben Pad- 
dock, Samuel Chaffin, Thomas Nichols, between McFarland's 
house and barn, Thaddeus Chamberlain, Timothy Paine to 
the old road leading from Elisha Smith's to Worcester. 
May 3, 1824, the town voted, "that the street from Abraham 
Lincoln's store to Broken-up-Hill untill it comes to Robert 
Barber's at the Guide post be called Salisbury street." 
Broken-up Hill is so designated in a deed of December 5, 



56 

1754. When a boy I used to hear it called Breakneck 
Hill, a corruption of the other probably. It was the hill 
at the summit of which was the old Bancroft house. The 
name had its application on one occasion at least. When 
a mere infant I had been at my grandfather's house for 
several days away from my parents. When the Sabbath 
came my uncle and aunt drove to town in a chaise, the 
usual vehicle of that time. Descending this hill the horse 
fell and broke some part of the carriage or harness or both. 
Rain was falling fast and the road was quite muddy. My 
uncle placed us by the side of the road under the shelter 
of an umbrella while he repaired the damage. The horse 
presented a sorry sight bedaubed with mud, and hardly 
presentable at the door of the meeting house. Therefore 
my uncle turned homewards and my grief for my mother 
was quieted in slumber before the old homestead was 
reached. Broken-up Hill and the one this side of it were 
both steeper than now; the summits having been cut off 
and the valley between them filled up several feet. In 
this valley there was a bridge across a brook that carried 
the water from a spring on the south side of the road into 
the brook that flowed through the meadow. The pond 
touched the road on both sides of the lower hill. There 
was a spring on the south side of the road where the Bliss 
house has been erected recently, under the elms on the 
lot; the water from this spring ran into a ditch on the 
south side of the road and crossed the road by a culvert 
and thence into the pond. Riding past there one day my 
father told me of a drunken man who was drowned in 
that ditch; he stumbled into it face downward and was 
suffocated in two or three inches of water. Speaking of 
this to a gentleman not long since he said he had seen 
the finding of the inquest which took place, but could not 
recall the date. The road was narrow and bounded on 
both sides by stone walls, that on the north side extending 
to the farmhouse, and on the south side to the Joe Bill 



57 

road. The ground on the sides was higher than the road. 
At the corner of Joe Bill road there was a small building on 
the line of the road used for storing farm tools, and another 
a short distance north of it. Several large button-ball 
trees were on the sides of both roads near their intersection. 
Joe Bill road was laid out in March, 1748, to accommodate 
Joseph Bill, though there had been a pathway probably 
over the same ground prior to that. Joshua Rice received 
a grant of land on the south and east of Prospect Hill, 
a part of which he sold to John Stearns, who sold 85 acres 
to Joseph Bill in 1738; he lived there thirty-two years, 
and then sold to John Baird, who sold to Timothy Bigelow; 
this afterwards became a part of the John Hammond 
farm, which is now covered with valuable residences. Joe 
Bill road in my boyhood and till within a few years was 
a pretty, rustic lane almost entirely overgrown with trees, 
shrubs and bushes. On the south side, a little west of 
Lancaster street, Isaac Lamb lived in a very small and 
poor house. He was a hard working man, who afterwards 
bought a farm at Greendale and died there many years 
ago; his sons, William M., a farmer and Thomas M., a watch- 
maker, both deceased, are well remembered. It seems to 
tne that it was unfortunate to change the name of this 
old road. 

Grove street, from Salisbury street to its intersection 
at Chadwick square with the road from Mr. Salisbury's 
to Barber's and Colonel George Moore's, was laid out in 
December, 1832; this road crossed the dam at the Wire 
Mills, built about the same time, and Salisbury's Pond 
was formed. In 1840 at the "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" 
campaign there were two small wooden houses on the 
east side of Grove street near the mill; one of these \v:is 
moved to Forest street many years afterward and remains 
there. Between these houses and Madam Salisbury's there 
were no other houses, but the whole tract east to Mill 
Brook was open land, and on it was erected the great 



58 

log cabin where thousands congregated to listen to political 
speeches and drink hard cider. At the fork of the roads 
where the Armory stands there was a large wooden house 
quite a distance back from the streets, in which Sheriff 
John S. C. Knowlton, also editor and proprietor of the 
Palladium,, Anthony Chase, County Treasurer for many 
years, General George Hobbs and others lived; this house 
has been moved to the west side of Lancaster street and 
stands there considerably altered. Highland street was 
laid out in September, 1832; it was one mile and 109 rods 
in length. The central road in front of the Court House 
was removed in March, 1832. 



JUN 13 1907 



LBFe 10 



EARLY ROADS 



THE DWELLERS THEREON 



THE NORTHERN PORTION OF WORCESTER. 



